Four teachers and all student of Dhaka University (DU) have been freed after a long wait. Teachers were released from prison last evening (22 December) following a presidential mercy after three of them had been convicted by a court in the morning in a case of emergency power rules (EPR) violation against them in connection with last August’s campus unrest. Students have freed today morning (23 December).
Prof Sadrul Amin, Prof Anwar Hossain and Prof Harun-or Rashid, each of whom had been sentenced to two years imprisonment, were freed along with Prof Nimchandra Bhowmik, who had been acquitted in the same case.
President Iajuddin Ahmed earlier in the day approved the clemency, clearing the way for the jail authorities to release the teachers. The teachers at first however had refused to leave the jail without their detained students, but later they agreed to come out of the jail on assurance that their students will also be released soon.
DU Teachers’ Association (Duta) General Secretary Prof Anwar, and Social Science Faculty Dean Rashid were detained by the army-led joint forces at the early hour of August 24, while Duta President Prof Sadrul and Physics Department Chairman Bhowmik surrendered to the court on September 16 and September 18 respectively, following the court’s arrest warrant against them.
In the other hand, the government withdrew a number of cases against the teachers and students implicated in the August campus violence, a move seen as a bid to remedy the tension that has been permeating the campuses for months now. All prisoner students with Manobendro Dev, the president of Bangladesh Students’ Union, have released after all kind of procedures.